The announcement that Hickory has landed another call center is good news in a dismal economy. As we all know, the macroeconomic picture isn't pretty and unemployment is rising in our area as it is in most areas. My sense is that the recession will be longer and more painful than most pundits predict. We should prepare for a worse case scenario. But, nevertheless, this call center will provide jobs for a good number of our neighbors and we should be thankful for them.
Since this is the second call center that will locate here and there haven't been many other companies coming here (except for the often touted MDI and Target) I would like to make a couple of observations:
First, we need to rejoice for the good news and double down on efforts to attract more. We still have a lot of ground to make up both in terms of the number of jobs and the pay scales. In the whole Unifour area, since the furniture and textile bust, we have lost around 24000 jobs. Many of these jobs paid $15 to $18 dollars an hour. The jobs at the call center will pay pretty well but certainly not what we lost. We have to get what we can but at some point we need to land industries that pay the fat checks .
Secondly, while the call centers are good news it does not create a "Hickory Brand". And we don't want to be the Bangalore, India of the US (should we call ourselves Hickolore or Bangalickory?) In the former economy, we were known internationally for furniture and textiles. This was our "brand name" if you will. Now, I am all in favor of a diversified economic base but we need a focus for Hickory. What will we be known for? The county has made some strides in biodiesel. Charlotte is trying to lure energy companies such as solar panel manufacturers and nuclear plant technology. Kannapolis has the biotech operations that David Murdock is creating. And Hickory will have ????????????
Double-H Believes : Hickory is a center of retail sales (drawing from a 6 county area) and we have a vibrant restaurant scene. If people are coming to shop and eat, why do we not have more entertainment businesses?
Manufacturing is not dead. Burke county has attracted a specialty battery company, there are medical devices, medical textiles, military textiles that camouflage soldiers, etc. We need to get industry leaders and partner with them to get ahead of the curve on some of these and locate them here to use the talent base and assets we have here to build our brand. The call center is good news. Now let's get some momentum.
